Pastry mixes formulated to provide crispy products or pre-baked products when baked in a conventional oven do not always produce crispy products when microwaved. In cooking such as for example, by frying through direct flame or by baking by heated air, the heat source causes food molecules to react from the surface inward bus heating successive layers in turn. As such, the outside of a foodpiece receives more exposure to cooking temperatures than the interior of the foodstuff and a crispy outer coating can be attained.
Microwave radiation, in contrast, penetrates a foodpiece and creates molecular vibration in water as well as other polar molecules. Heat results from this molecular vibration and is generated throughout the foodpiece rather than being passed by conduction from the surface inward. Thus the food surface is heated at a rate which is roughly comparable to the heating rate at the center of the food. Therefore, if it is desirable that the food interior be tender and moist, in most foods the exterior will have the same texture. As a result, there is essentially no surface browning or crusting of the foodstuff.
Presently, there are a number of compositions and methods for coating fresh and frozen foodstuffs which are later reconstituted by microwave cooking. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,675,197 and 4,755,392 to Banner et al describe a three-component food coating composition, including a predust layer, a batter layer and a breading layer, which is applied successively to raw or precooked food. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,684 to D'Amico et al discloses a two-step coating for foodstuffs which involves applying a dry predust layer to the food and then coating it with an aqueous farinaceous-based and high amylose flour-containing batter mix.
Batters for coating dough-covered foodstuffs which are frozen and later reconstituted by microwave radiation or in a conventional oven have also been formulated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,744,994 to Bernacchi et al is directed to a method for preparing batter-coated frozen comestibles by twice-coating the food with a wheat flour-shortening based batter mixture, twice-frying the foodstuff and then reconstituting it either by microwaving or baking. European Patent Application No. 89300957.1 of DCA Food Industries, Inc. discloses a process for preparing a microwaveable partially pre-cooked and pre-fried food pie which is a foodstuff enwrapped by a high fat dough containing about 13 wt-% vegetable shortening, and coated with a batter slurry formulated without the use of high amylose flour.
Butters with high amylose content have also been coated directly onto the surface of foodstuffs in an attempt to provide a crust-like coating when the foodstuff is fried end later microwaved. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,529,607 and 4,595,597 to Lenchin et al disclose a high amylose flour-based batter for coating directly onto the surface of fresh and frozen foodstuffs such as fish, poultry, meet and vegetable products which are then partially cooked in oil, frozen, and subsequently cooked to completion by microwaving. High amylose batters have been formulated for coating dough-covered foodstuffs to provide crispy crusts when subsequently fried in oil, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,487,786 to Junga.
However, the technology including that disclosed above generally does not provide a means for attaining any variety of foodstuffs having adequate crispness and texture after microwaving. Further, the technology does not provide a means for developing any variety of foodstuffs having adequate crispness and texture after microwaving without a microwave susceptor.